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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29060154">season's greetings (from my family to yours)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tostitos/pseuds/tostitos'>tostitos</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adopted Children, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family Feels, Flashbacks, Getting Together, Homophobia, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mistletoe, Non-Linear Narrative, Reminiscing, Strangers to Lovers, a little tiny bit of sexual humor at the end, jeno and donghyuck are twins, very mild</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:00:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>11,029</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29060154</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tostitos/pseuds/tostitos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a lot to prepare for during the holiday season with a family of five. In between making sure nothing is destroyed in the process of getting the tree up, properly welcoming the winter season, and playing Santa with his husband, Doyoung remembers the time when he couldn't even imagine having the type of picture-perfect family he only ever saw in movies.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung/Suh Youngho | Johnny</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>120</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>johndofest - round one</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>season's greetings (from my family to yours)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>written for johndofest!!<br/>prompt 03: doyoung and johnny celebrating christmas with the children they adopted and they reminisce the winter they confessed to each other under the mistletoe</p><p>note: this fic contains flashbacks. they are not italicized so you have to pay attention to the tense changes and context. i also don't think i said but i imagined yeri to be about 3/4 years old and jeno and donghyuck to be somewhere between 7 and 9</p><p>personally i am both satisfied and regretful toward this fic. but all that matters is that the prompter enjoys it so i really hope you do!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“It’s snowing.”</p><p>Doyoung looks away from the conveyor belt leading up to the register where a woman is scanning robotically, breaking out of his thoughts of if they’ve forgotten to grab anything, and glances first at where his husband is leaning over the handle of their cart and then out the windows at the front of the store. Sure enough, there’s a flurry of white stirring in the strong winds that Doyoung still feels in his bones even now despite them spending at least an hour and a half in this store.</p><p>“It’d be nice if it snows again at the end of the month. We haven’t had a white Christmas in a couple years,” he says, glancing down at the belt again. He eyes the five rolls of wrapping paper and wonders if it’ll be enough for everything. They never overspend on gifts so those aren’t the worry, but it’s that Johnny is so terrible at wrapping that he always ends up ripping the paper and using twice as much as needed.</p><p>Doyoung would rather get wrapping done tonight while the house is empty and not have to come back to the store. The brats have a habit of getting into everything that Doyoung doesn’t want them to, driven by sheer determination to get on his last nerve, and he knows if he has to wrap even one gift after he picks them up from their grandparent’s house tomorrow, that they’re going to find the rest before Christmas.</p><p>He wouldn’t mind if it was just the boys because they no longer believe in Santa, but Yeri is still young and he doesn’t want them to accidentally ruin the Christmas fun for her.</p><p>Soft knuckles graze the slope of his jaw and Doyoung smiles as he meets Johnny’s eyes, his husband standing now and with his credit card in hand.</p><p>“What are you thinking about?” Johnny asks, reaching across to take a bag from the cashier and place it in their cart.</p><p>“How much wrapping paper you’re going to waste this year,” Doyoung answers truthfully, laughing when Johnny hooks his arm around his neck and ruffles his hair.</p><p>“I’m getting better!” Johnny claims.</p><p>Doyoung snorts, remembering taping pieces of mismatched wrapping paper together just to have enough to cover the record player they gave Jaehyun like some kind of Frankenstein’s monster in paper last year. “No, Mr. Suh, you’re not.”</p><p>Johnny helps put the last bag in the cart and hands his card over to the cashier when she asks. He sends a pout Doyoung’s way, giving those classic puppy dog eyes that he always does when he feels slighted by Doyoung or their friends.</p><p>If they were in the car or at home, Doyoung would kiss it away, but as it stands, they are in Target on a Saturday afternoon so Doyoung simply gives him an unbothered look.</p><p>“Well, <em>Mr. Suh</em>, if you don’t have any faith in me,” Johnny says after he takes his card and the receipt and wishes the cashier a good day, “how about we make it a competition?”</p><p>Sighing and shaking his head, Doyoung follows his husband to the entrance of the store. “You and competitions.”</p><p>“What do you mean by that?” Johnny tosses a look over his shoulder.</p><p> </p><p>“I mean, do we really need to do this?” Doyoung asked as he was pushed up to a table by Taeyong. He knew it was a mistake to befriend the other boy when he sat next to Doyoung during a general history lecture in their third year of high school and now, in their third year of university, he was fully regretting the decision. “Or rather...do <em>I</em>?”</p><p>They were in a hybrid Internet cafe, the kind that doubled as a manhwa cafe among other things, and in between giving up trying to learn how to play PUBG and losing Jungwoo and Sejeong to the darts board, Taeyong had apparently bragged to another group of students about how well Doyoung could shoot pool.</p><p>Doyoung wasn’t bad at pool, but he also wasn’t fantastic, and having a tall, gorgeous boy walk up to him with an interested (and rather cocky) smirk and hold out a pool stick after Doyoung was volunteered to play against his will, was simply not on his list of things he wanted to do on that particular Friday night.</p><p>“Afraid you’re going to be paying for everyone’s drinks?” The man Doyoung was supposed to go up against said with a chuckle.</p><p>He had a voice like a late-night radio host, so deep and smooth. Doyoung stood there for a moment, staring at the man blankly as he let the sound of it settle in his ears and cover his arms in a tingling blanket.</p><p>An elbow in his side snapped him out of it, courtesy of Taeyong. Replaying the question back in his mind, all Doyoung could think was a loud ‘yes’, but he couldn’t say that after how much Taeyong hyped him up and so he simply took the pool stick and turned to rack up the balls.</p><p>His opponent seemed to like the unintentional attitude because his smile grew wider and his eyes lit up and for a first impression, it was so unnecessarily intense.</p><p>“If we lose,” Doyoung muttered under his breath to Taeyong as he watched the man who handed him the pool stick line up to break the balls after Doyoung finished setting up, “you are paying for everything. I am not opening my wallet for this shit.”</p><p>Taeyong had the audacity to whine but he couldn’t start complaining because Doyoung moved away to start his turn. No balls were pocketed after the break and he aimed for solids, missing the pocket on his shot.</p><p>When he stood again, he realized hot, radio DJ voice man was standing behind him, leaning against the wall.</p><p>“My name is John, by the way. But everyone calls me Johnny,” he said offering up a half-smile. “You?”</p><p>Doyoung stepped back to be in line with him, his eyes on Johnny’s pool partner who was lining up for his shot. “Dongyoung, but everyone calls me Doyoung.”</p><p>Hearing his words repeated back at him made Johnny laugh.</p><p>Doyoung glanced over at Johnny. “How old are you?”</p><p>“Twenty-one.”</p><p>“Oh, you’re older than me.”</p><p>The man Johnny was playing with sunk the ten-ball and glanced over with raised brows at Johnny who hissed out a sound of satisfaction. Johnny looked at Doyoung then as he broke away from the wall to approach the table.</p><p>He surveyed the spread of balls and walked around the table to where the cue ball was. As he lined up his stick, he glanced across the table at where Doyoung stood.</p><p>“When you lose, you at least have to pay for mine, okay, Doyoung-ah,” Johnny said with a wink.</p><p>Doyoung couldn’t say if that was supposed to be flirtatious but his cheeks flared nonetheless. He focused on the table and frowned when he saw Johnny had a nice shot lined up for himself.</p><p>Johnny drew back the pool stick, took the shot...</p><p>And missed.</p><p> </p><p>“Goodness, that was so uncool,” Doyoung says with a laugh as he helps organize their shopping bags into the trunk of Johnny’s car.</p><p>Johnny groans. “Definitely was a hit to my ego.”</p><p>“That’s what you get for thinking you were hot shit.”</p><p>Huffing, Johnny picks up the last bag from the cart. “In my defense, I thought you were really cute and it was impairing my judgment.”</p><p>Hands on the cart, Doyoung gives his husband a look. “For the wink, I’ll buy it. But, honey, you’re always like that when you think you can beat me at something or want to prove me wrong.”</p><p>“And I still think you’re really cute and it still impairs my judgment to this day.” Johnny leans in for a quick kiss and then closes the trunk.</p><p>Shaking his head and smiling fondly, Doyoung turns and begins pushing the cart away to return as Johnny walks around the already started and warming car to climb in.</p><p> </p><p>(Johnny rips the paper on four of the seven boxes he tries to wrap. Doyoung simply kisses his cheek and tells him to make dinner instead when he tries to reach for an eighth box.)</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Dad!”</p><p>Doyoung doesn’t even pause as he walks in the front door after work, toeing off his shoes. He glances at the stairs, wondering if he wants to go up and change into house clothes first or if he wants to walk into whatever disaster is occurring in their living room.</p><p>“Hyuck is threatening to throw ornaments at me!” Jeno shouts.</p><p>“Ah.” Doyoung can’t help but make the noise of understanding as he pulls his shoulder bag over his head and sits it on the floor. He chuckles soon after and decides to make sure his husband is alright.</p><p>He sees the twins making faces at each other before he even makes it all the way down the hall and Johnny is sighing as he threads string through the holes of the older ornaments that have lost them over the years. They’ve hardly made a dent on the tree, almost nothing but the lights wrapped around it.</p><p>Yeri notices him first, her big eyes lighting up. “Papa!” She slides off the couch and runs up to him, hugging his legs.</p><p>He scoops her up with one arm and plants a wet kiss on her cheek, making her squeal and rub at it.</p><p>“How are you, sweetie?” he asks her as he walks over to his husband. Johnny angles his head up to accept a kiss. “Did you guys just start?”</p><p>Johnny snorts and then begins to laugh as if Doyoung has just told a wonderful joke. “Thing One and Thing Two ended up tangling the lights so I had to help them get them untangled which means actually getting them <em>on</em> the tree took more time than it should have,” Johnny says. “We’ve been sitting here for…” he takes out his phone to check the time, “…about forty-five minutes.”</p><p>Doyoung mewls a sound of pity for him and leans in to kiss his husband again. “Amazing how they’re adopted by they’re still one hundred percent your own blood.”</p><p>Johnny throws the soft bulb in his hand at Doyoung who raises an eyebrow and then gives a pointed look at the twins.</p><p>“I love it when you immediately prove me right.”</p><p>Putting Yeri down on the couch next to Johnny so she can finish helping thread the ornaments without strings, Doyoung then sits down on the floor next to his sons. He leans on one arm and looks down at them with a smile.</p><p>"If I see a single scratch on any of these ornaments, your allowance will be used to buy new ones," he says in Korean, just to drive the point home that he's serious as he picks up one of the bulbs beside them and begins looking it over. They get a few dollars in exchange for keeping up with house chores and their schoolwork, but when they started earning an allowance Doyoung and Johnny made it very clear that anything they break in the house is paid for with what would be their own money.</p><p>Donghyuck and Jeno look up at him with matching looks of distress.</p><p>"<em>Appa</em>!" Donghyuck whines.</p><p>"I'm not even doing anything," Jeno replies in Korean, then switches to English. "It was all Hyuck!"</p><p>Doyoung looks up to spare a sideways glance at Jeno who curls in on himself, his body language immediately telling Doyoung that this play fight surely is not one-sided. Jeno hasn't yet mastered the ability to lie with his body.</p><p>“I’m not saying either of you have done anything yet. I’m telling you to be careful or there will be consequences.” Ruffling the hair of his boys, he pushes himself back up, shooting a glare at Johnny when he giggles at the sound of Doyoung’s bones cracking. “I’m going to change my clothes and then I guess I’ll come back to help,” he says as he walks toward where he left his bag and picks it up so he can take it upstairs.</p><p>After exchanging his light sweater and khakis for a comfortable navy blue, long-sleeved shirt and a pair of grey lounge pants, Doyoung returns downstairs. He passes by the living room, sparing a glance over and smiling at Donghyuck pointing out to Yeri where it would be best to hang the beaded angel ornament she has in her tiny hands, and walks into the kitchen. From the cabinets, he pulls out four mugs and a tiny plastic cup and places them on the counter. Then, he takes out a saucepan and places it on the stove. He walks over to the refrigerator to take out the milk and soon he has it on the stove slowly warming up.</p><p> </p><p>"Hey."</p><p>Doyoung turned over his shoulder at the hand on his arm and followed the limb up to Johnny's face. His eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, hey," he replied, looking around inside the Hollys Coffee down the street from the edge of his university campus.</p><p>It was close to ten at night and Doyoung had been sitting at a table in the corner of the twenty-four-hour coffee shop trying to study for the last hour and a half or so. He always felt a little bad whenever he took up space in a shop long after he finished eating or drinking and so there he was, in line for another drink.</p><p>"I didn't expect to see you here," Doyoung said. Or ever again, actually. He and Taeyong ended up losing that game of pool against Johnny and Jaehyun — as Doyoung would learn the other boy’s name later — and Doyoung begrudgingly paid for Johnny's drink even after he told Taeyong that he wouldn't.</p><p>(He told himself it was because Johnny was standing right there as Doyoung ordered the coffee from the front desk, but really it was because he might have managed to be charmed by Johnny's attempts to make him laugh with corny jokes the entire duration of the game).</p><p>"I don't usually like to give myself temptation to drink coffee at night," Johnny said. His smile was easy as he gazed at Doyoung and something about him with that simple expression made Doyoung turn warm.</p><p>"Then what are you doing here?"</p><p>"A couple friends wanted to hang out." Johnny shrugged.</p><p>Doyoung nodded.</p><p>"How about you? Studying?"</p><p>"Yeah," Doyoung sighed as he stepped forward to follow the line. "I have a couple tests in the next few weeks that I'm trying to prepare for."</p><p>Johnny hummed in understanding. "Shame."</p><p>Raising an eyebrow, Doyoung looked up at him. "What do you mean?"</p><p>"I was going to ask if you'd mind if I joined, but I don't want to disturb you." Johnny shrugged again, shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and looking off to the side.</p><p>“What about your friends?”</p><p>“They’re leaving soon.”</p><p>Doyoung told himself that what he still had left to work on could wait and he wasn’t sure if it were true or if he was doing a great job of convincing himself that he could absolutely make time for the other boy. “Well…I think I could spare a little bit of time for you.”</p><p>Johnny’s lips twitched in a way that looked like he wanted to smirk but held himself back. Doyoung blushed all the same when Johnny asked, “<em>For</em> me?”</p><p>Sucking on the inside of his mouth and praying he didn’t look as red as he felt, Doyoung tried to be cool about it. “For a <em>break</em>,” he corrected.</p><p>Johnny smiled and the topic was dropped as Johnny glanced up at the menu and asked what Doyoung was going to get.</p><p>Doyoung lead Johnny back to his table some minutes later, mint hot chocolate that was paid for by Johnny at the other boy’s insistence in hand. He sat his drink next to his laptop before moving his bag out of the seat opposite where he was sitting and moving it under the table against the wall.</p><p>When they sat across from each other, Doyoung was struck silent by the reality that he didn't know Johnny well enough to be able to think of a conversation topic off the top of his head. Plus, there was also the slight problem that Johnny looked great dressed in a black t-shirt that fit his chest very well and a loose denim jacket with his hair lightly mussed with gel while Doyoung was dressed in a baby blue hoodie with a tiny yellow motif on the left side of the chest, his hair only slightly less messy than it was when he woke up from his mid-Saturday nap earlier. Doyoung couldn’t possibly try to pat down his hair without making it obvious to Johnny that he was trying to look good.</p><p>Closing his laptop, Doyoung moved it off the side of the table and then held his warm mug between his hands. He tapped his fingers on the sides in a very obvious display of nerves that he tried to counteract with a soft smile at Johnny.</p><p>"Thank you for paying," he said. "You really didn't have to."</p><p>Leaning back in his chair, Johnny shrugged coolly. "You paid the last time. It's only right that I treat you this time, especially when..."</p><p>He trailed off and Doyoung raised an eyebrow.</p><p>"Especially when...?" The younger of the two tried to push.</p><p>"Especially when I was hoping we could be friends," Johnny answered. "I was a little annoyed at myself when I realized that I didn't get your Kakao after that night."</p><p>Doyoung's jittery fingers instantly froze. He blinked. "You wanted my Kakao?" He couldn't keep the obvious incredulity out of his voice, incredibly surprised.</p><p>Sure, he thought Johnny was nice to talk to during their game of pool and in the time he and his friend Jaehyun joined Doyoung's group for the next hour or so they were at the cafe, and Doyoung too might have thought it'd be great if they could see each other again, but Doyoung didn’t think he made such an interesting enough first impression on the older man.</p><p>Johnny raised both of his brows. "Is that such a surprise?" he asked. "Or is this your way of hinting that you would have said 'no' if I did remember to ask?"</p><p>"I...well, kind of?" Doyoung said before remembering that there was a second question when Johnny winced noticeably. "That was to you asking if it was a surprise! I would have definitely said yes if you asked for my contact."</p><p>Tucking his chin into his chest, Doyoung averted his eyes away from Johnny and lifted his cup to his mouth to take a sip.</p><p>Across from him, Johnny chuckled. "Good. Then before I go, we'll have to exchange." Johnny glanced down at his own mug of hot chocolate and Doyoung watched as he pouted.</p><p>“What?” Doyoung asked as he set down his drink, swiping his tongue over his lips.</p><p>Shaking his head, Johnny waved a hand of dismissal. “I wish I had salt but this obviously isn't the place to ask for it.”</p><p>It took a moment for that to really settle in Doyoung’s head. When it did, all he could do was blink and stupidly repeat, “…salt.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Johnny nodded, “for the hot chocolate.”</p><p>Doyoung felt like he should have already known why Johnny would want that, but he didn’t. He must have been making a face because Johnny laughed.</p><p> </p><p>“It brings out the flavor,” Johnny says as he tips a spoonful of salt into a white mug that has his name printed on the side in black serif.</p><p>Doyoung frowns at his husband over his shoulder for a moment before returning to his task of taking out the bag of marshmallows from the pantry closet. “I didn’t even say anything.” Pulling the sliding door closed, Doyoung returns to where he’s lined up his own mug with his name on it, one red and one blue mug, and a tiny, yellow plastic cup.</p><p>“You always give me this weird look when I do it!”</p><p>“Because it’s weird you like salty hot chocolate?” Doyoung snorts, bumping Johnny out of the way with his hip. He pinches off the clip holding the bag of marshmallows closed and opens it.</p><p>As he plucks out three marshmallows for each of them (minus Yeri, whose cup will only fit one), Johnny leans against the counter beside him, his hands clasped around his own mug.</p><p>“You said you could taste the difference that first time I had you try it,” Johnny tries to defend himself.</p><p>Doyoung hums, nodding. That wasn’t the same day he met Johnny for the second time in that Holly’s Cafe, but he also remembers that evening. It was another one where Doyoung was studying, except he had planned to meet with Johnny so they could study together.</p><p>“It does bring out the sweetness,” he affirms. Pulling out a marshmallow, he glances at his husband. “Doesn’t change the fact I can also taste the salt,” he says, shoving the marshmallow into Johnny’s mouth when the older man opens it to retort.</p><p>Laughing, Doyoung closes the bag again and on his way to the pantry, he sticks his head out of the kitchen. “I made hot chocolate,” he shouts to his children.</p><p>“I’ll train one of them to appreciate the quality of a nicely salted hot cocoa,” Johnny mumbles, mouth full of sticky sugar.</p><p>Doyoung pulls open the pantry again to put back the marshmallows as Yeri skips into the kitchen with her hand held in Donghyuck’s. “Is that your villain origin story? Indoctrinating our children to like your hot chocolate over mine?”</p><p>Jeno shuffles into the kitchen a moment later, wiping wet hands on the front of his jeans. He looks up at Doyoung, his mouth pulled in a concerned frown. “Did you let dad put salt in it?”</p><p>“Yeah.” Doyoung smirks. “But <em>only</em> yours,” he lies.</p><p>Something in Jeno’s eyes wavers and he looks at his twin who is already holding the red mug. Neither mug is theirs, per se, but Donghyuck tends to use the red and Jeno tends to use the blue.</p><p>“Wait, Hyuck! I want the red cup this time!”</p><p>“No way!”</p><p>Biting back a laugh, Doyoung looks at Johnny who is carefully handing Yeri her cup after pulling on a small sleeve to keep her from feeling the heat. He catches his husband’s eye over the top of her head and can’t help but chuckle at the mild annoyance in Johnny’s gaze.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The ice-skating rink isn't so busy, not as much as Doyoung expected it to be at least. Then again, usually, they come in the afternoon rather than the early morning, and with the dusting of snow that still covers the ground, solidifying into more and more slippery ice with every day, he supposes not too many are keen on coming out to go ice skating when they can do the same thing in the streets outside their homes.</p><p>He crouches in front of Yeri to help the toddler into her tiny skates. They're personal skates, a cute yellow with bright pink laces that she picked herself, both because this rink doesn't offer rental skates for children her age, and because Johnny has been talking about enrolling her in skating lessons to give her something active to do during the winter while they consider signing her up for gymnastics in the Spring.</p><p>This day is something of a trial with one of the instructors and it was Doyoung's idea to bring the whole family for support and a day of fun.</p><p>Hearing Johnny snort, Doyoung looks away from Yeri to see Johnny teasing Donghyuck who is waddling like a duck in his laced-up skates.</p><p>Shaking his head, Doyoung finishes tying up Yeri's skates and tells her to wait while he puts on his own so he can walk her to over where the instructor is waiting. After he has on his own rental skates, he stands up and holds out a hand for his daughter.</p><p>"Papa," she says, tugging on his hand. He looks down at her, the girl looking down at her feet.</p><p>"Yes?"</p><p>"These feel weird," she complains, glancing up for a quick second to show him her pout.</p><p>Smiling gently, he squeezes her hand. "It's okay. It's a little hard to get used to but it's fun when you do," he says. "And if you don't like it, you can tell me or Daddy and you can tell us something else you want to try."</p><p>He stops them just a couple of feet away from the entrance to the rink and crouches in front of her. She's still pouting, and he pinches her lips. "You look like a little duck with that mouth."</p><p>Giggling, Yeri swats at his arm.</p><p>"Promise me you'll try, okay? Even if you think you can't do it, I don't want you to give up. My Yeri can do anything, can't she?"</p><p>When she nods enthusiastically, Doyoung stands up and takes her hand again, leading her those few short steps to the instructor: a wide-smiled brunette in a violet bubble vest who introduces herself as Marie.</p><p>After leaving Yeri in her care, Doyoung steps onto the ice and skates over to where Marie is still talking to Yeri by the seats. He leans over the edge of the short wall to watch, just to make sure she’ll be okay.</p><p> </p><p>Doyoung flinched when someone slid next to him, turning easily to come to a stop right in front of him. He clutched harder at the wall, afraid that if he loosened his grip any that his feet would slip right from underneath him.</p><p>He’d never been skating before — didn’t even know a rink existed this close to their university campus — and honestly, he was not quite sure why he agreed to come.</p><p>(This was a lie; he did know, and the reason was standing right in front of him wearing a look of both concern and mild amusement.)</p><p>“You should have told me you’ve never skated before,” Johnny said. “I would have suggested to Jaehyun that we do something else.”</p><p>Doyoung shook his head and took his hands off the wall to wave his hands in an effort to show Johnny that he was fine. “No, I—“ The uncomfortable angle of his legs from trying to keep his balance made his knees weak and when he tried to adjust, he slid. Gasping, he reached out to hold on to something and ended up grasping the front of Johnny’s eggshell, knit sweater.</p><p>Johnny curled one hand under the arm attached to his sweater and shifted his weight to hold Doyoung steady. “You okay?”</p><p>Nodding, Doyoung released Johnny’s sweater. “Sorry,” he mumbled. He tried to take his arm back and was surprised when Johnny didn’t let go, eyes ballooning as Johnny slid his hand down Doyoung’s arm until their palms aligned in a light hold.</p><p>“Skate with me a little bit,” Johnny said. “It’ll make you feel more comfortable so you’re not hugging the wall the whole time.”</p><p>Doyoung panicked when Johnny began to glide backwards, pulling a lock-kneed Doyoung along. “Wait, Johnny— “</p><p>“I got you.” There was something in Johnny’s voice then, something smooth and reassuring that both calmed Doyoung’s heart and made it speed up with nerves that may not have had anything to do with a fear of falling on his butt. “I’m not going to let you fall. But you have to trust me and skate,” he said, rubbing the pad of his thumb over Doyoung’s knuckle. “Don’t just let me drag you along.”</p><p>“Hey!”</p><p>Doyoung didn’t even dare turn to look at Taeyong, afraid that if he did, he’d go down and take Johnny with him.</p><p>“I didn’t know you didn’t know how to skate,” Jaehyun was there too, probably keeping Taeyong company. “Do you want to go do something else?”</p><p>“No! Really, I’m— “</p><p>Johnny cleared his throat. “I’m teaching him.” He nodded his head to the side in an obvious gesture for the two of them to leave that made Doyoung’s cheeks burn.</p><p>Jaehyun’s whistle made it worse.</p><p>With a snort, Taeyong nudged Jaehyun’s arm with an elbow and they shared a look that Doyoung purposefully ignored.</p><p>“Let’s go skate somewhere else then while Johnny takes care of Doie,” Taeyong said, his voice sliding over his words in a teasing tone.</p><p>Doyoung shouldn’t have, but he watched Taeyong and Jaehyun skate away and had his eyes still locked on Taeyong when he turned around and made a childish kissing face behind Johnny’s back. Quickly turning back to face Johnny, Doyoung took one look at his soft, welcoming smile and decided the safest place to look was his feet.</p><p>He had never been great at reading signals and even if he thought Johnny was handsome and sweet and comfortable to be around, Doyoung had made a fool out of himself one too many times by showing interest in guys he thought were flirting with him only for them to correct that they were only being friendly. He’d rather not do it again — not with Johnny and not with anyone else.</p><p>Johnny gently coached him through the basics of skating, tone patient and hands warm. He led Doyoung around the outside of the rink like that a couple times, letting go of Doyoung’s hand every once in a while, but always quick to find it again whenever he stumbled over his feet. Slowly, Doyoung started to get the hang of it to the point where he felt comfortable moving without looking down or at Johnny and he turned his head to find their friends. He spied them off the ice, sitting next to each other on one of the benches outside of the rink and eating cheese dogs.</p><p>“Jesus, you’re pretty,” Johnny had said in English and Doyoung felt his heart stop and then burst and bleed all over himself.</p><p>Looking back at the older boy, Doyoung took in the faint dusting of pink in Johnny’s cheeks and the tip of his nose and wondered if it was from the cold or something else. “What?”</p><p>Johnny blinked once and then, for the first time that evening, averted his eyes from Doyoung’s. “You’re pretty<em> good.</em>”</p><p>He tried to put emphasis on the last word but Doyoung had never been bad at English and he knew exactly what he heard.</p><p>Johnny had let go of his hand a couple minutes earlier and Doyoung took it again then, squeezing it just gently enough that he could pass it off as Johnny’s imagination if he asked.</p><p> </p><p>Johnny squeezes his hand back and leans in to press a quick kiss to Doyoung’s temple. “I hope she likes it,” he says.</p><p>Doyoung does too. The boys were a struggle and a half when they were her age, always asking to learn new things and then whining about how much they didn’t want to go. They used to drive Doyoung up a wall — god the piano lessons were an absolute <em>nightmare</em> — and he’ll be so grateful if Yeri is even a single percent less fickle.</p><p>A tug on his hand pulls Doyoung away from the wall and he lets himself glide over the ice toward his husband. Johnny reaches out like he wants to hug him and Doyoung easily slides away with an airy laugh.</p><p>“Think you can catch me?” Doyoung teases childishly as he skates backwards, like they’re still twenty and in Seoul.</p><p>And Johnny is always willing to play, raising an eyebrow at him with his lips quirked in an incredulous smirk. “Are you forgetting that I’m the one who taught you how to skate?”</p><p>Doyoung sticks out his tongue. “That was years ago. Keep up if you think you can, old man.”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>His mother pulled him into a hug, smelling thickly of a floral perfume that made him want to choke. He held his breath through the motions of returning the hug and rubbing her back and covered the exhale of relief when he turned around to pull Johnny to his side. Her eyes lit up when she saw the other boy dip into a bow to greet her.</p><p>“Ah, your friend, the American,” she said.</p><p>“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Youngho,” he introduced himself using the Korean name Doyoung has never heard anyone actually call him by. “Thank you for letting me join you.”</p><p>“Oh, not at all! Come in, come in!”</p><p>Doyoung’s parents were nice people. His mom declined having them help in the kitchen, saying she couldn’t put Johnny to work for a real home-cooked meal when he hasn’t had one since he arrived in Korea to study. She even extended that nicety to Doyoung when she usually always asks for help because he’s the lesser of three evils between him, his brother, and his dad.</p><p>His dad quickly warmed up to Johnny as well, the two of them getting caught up in a conversation about basketball that Doyoung couldn’t follow even if he wanted to. That was just as unfamiliar. His dad could hardly keep a conversation with Taeyong for longer than five minutes, always struggling with finding a topic they were both interested in, and it wasn’t much better for any of the other few friends Doyoung had brought home.</p><p>But Doyoung appreciated it nonetheless. It felt good that his parents liked Johnny; it made the restless whirlwind of anxiety that had kept Doyoung’s back stiff and his hands fidgety the entire train ride back to his hometown outside of Seoul, fade out into calm.</p><p>“Sorry, can I have my friend back?” Doyoung asked, placing a hand on Johnny’s shoulder as he stood up from the couch, interrupting whatever discussion about the NBA that was going on.</p><p>Doyoung didn’t even know his dad watched American basketball.</p><p>Johnny laughed at him, something sly in his gaze that Doyoung couldn’t decipher until Doyoung brought him upstairs to show him his room.</p><p>“Jealous?” Johnny asked.</p><p>Closing the door to his bedroom behind them, Doyoung turned around with a raised eyebrow and a twisted mouth. “Of what?” He scoffed, walking around Johnny to sit on his bed, tossing his laptop beside him. Although he lived in a <em>hasukjib</em> close to his university most of the time, Doyoung visited home rather often so he didn’t feel too embarrassed by the decor as Johnny checked out his room. “My dad?”</p><p>Johnny picked up the stuffed bunny that Doyoung’s only girlfriend from before he came out gave him. “Isn’t that why you told me to come up here with you? So he could stop hogging all of my attention?”</p><p>He looked over his shoulder with a smirk and Doyoung rolled his eyes and picked up a pillow to throw at him once Johnny turned his back again.</p><p>“In your dreams,” Doyoung mumbled, flopping over to lie down and closing his eyes.</p><p>Doyoung wouldn’t call it jealousy, but he could admit to feeling ignored. Only to himself, though. He wouldn’t dare give Johnny more ammo to tease him with...or to give signals that confused the hell out of Doyoung.</p><p>Doyoung thought he heard Johnny murmur something and he opened his eyes to see Johnny gazing at him with a softness that made his breath catch lightly. Shyly digging his teeth into his bottom lip, Doyoung rolled onto his stomach and hid his reddening face in his folded arms.</p><p>“Did you say something?”</p><p>Shaking his head, Johnny stepped away from where he was snooping through the things on Doyoung’s clothes drawer. “I’m talking to myself,” he said, joining Doyoung on his bed.</p><p>Doyoung so desperately wanted to know what he said, but he only hummed a random sound and told Johnny to slide over his laptop.</p><p>They watched a couple of episodes of Reply 1998 — shoulders pressed together, the air both comforting and stiff — until Doyoung’s mother knocked on the door to tell them dinner was ready.</p><p>Doyoung’s parents were nice people. They asked Johnny about his studies in Business Administration, questioned about what his parents did for work in the States, laughed at his terrible jokes.</p><p>They were nice, but they never did a great job at making the house feel like a home to Doyoung.</p><p>“Do you have a girlfriend?” Doyoung’s mom asked midway into the meal.</p><p>Doyoung glanced up at Johnny who had paused with a bite of rice halfway to his mouth. He watched Johnny blink before the older boy finished directing the rice into his mouth.</p><p>Glancing down at this own food, Doyoung dipped his spoon into his kimchi jjigae and swirled it around.</p><p>“Uh...no, I don’t,” Johnny eventually answered.</p><p>Doyoung’s mom responded with a sound of disbelief. “Why not? A boy as handsome as you...” She clicked her tongue, shaking her head. “I was hoping you’d be able to help Doyoung find someone.”</p><p>“I don’t think Doyoung needs any help— “</p><p>Doyoung’s mom sighed while his dad laughed.</p><p>“This boy is always saying there aren’t any girls he’s interested in,” his dad said.</p><p>Doyoung tried to take a calming breath but his chest burned with the effort. Hands clammy, he stopped playing with his soup to wipe his palms on his thighs.</p><p>He jumped when he felt a foot shove between his own, glancing up at Johnny who was frowning lightly at his parents. Johnny brushed their ankles together — in comfort or in something else, Doyoung didn’t know — and Doyoung thought his thudding heart was going to beat out of his chest.</p><p>“Sometimes I wonder if he’s one of those <em>queers</em>.”</p><p>Doyoung’s father said it with such contempt and no matter how many times Doyoung had heard it, it never hurt any less, was never any less terrifying to know that his parents thought (even if not actively) that he was detestable, that he was perverted, that he didn’t deserve love or rights or happiness and—</p><p> </p><p>“Hey.”</p><p>Hands wrap around Doyoung’s shoulders and turn him around, pulling him into a warm, familiar chest.</p><p>“Come back to me, baby,” Johnny murmurs, mouth pressed to Doyoung’s temple as he rubs one of his hands across Doyoung’s back. “You’re with family who loves you.”</p><p>Doyoung knows that. He knows that and that’s what makes standing in the doorway of Johnny’s parent’s home on the other side of the suburbs outside Chicago, watching his children ramble at their grandparents who always look at them with so much pride and joy, hurt so much.</p><p>Doyoung can’t give them that from his parents when he hasn’t spoken to them since he first started dating Johnny. They never responded when he sent them the invite to their wedding, nor when he sent them a Christmas card with the family picture on it the year he and Johnny adopted Donghyuck and Jeno. Johnny doesn’t have any siblings and Doyoung can’t give his kids the experience of having an uncle either, his relationship with Donghyun only slightly less strained. At least Donghyun will wish him happy birthday on Facebook still, if nothing else.</p><p>“Let’s go upstairs.”</p><p>Forehead pressed to the junction of Johnny’s shoulder with the fibers of his turtleneck sweater bothering Doyoung’s eyelashes, Doyoung shakes his head. “I’m fine.” He wraps his arms around his husband’s midsection and squeezes him tight. “...I’m fine.”</p><p>“You are,” Johnny agrees, gently pushing Doyoung back by his waist so he can see his face. He wipes at the tears dotting Doyoung’s eyes with his thumb and then cups the side of his face, tilting Doyoung’s head back enough so he can comfortably brush his lips over Doyoung’s own.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Doyoung says, hugging his husband again. He presses his cheek to Johnny’s collarbone, face turned so he can see where his parents-in-law are entertaining the kids. “I know I shouldn’t still be letting what happened with my family get to me.”</p><p>He feels Johnny shake his head. “Don’t ever apologize for that, Doie. You’re allowed to be hurt for as long as you feel that way.” Johnny kisses the top of his head again. “And I know you’re not really hurting for yourself anymore but for our kids. But we’ve given them so much, baby: grandparents even if only one set, uncles in Jaehyun and Taeyong... They’re not lacking anything, Doyoung. You’re a great father.”</p><p>Doyoung’s bottom lip is trembling by the end of Johnny’s speech and he sucks in a deep breath, eyes rolled up to the ceiling as he furiously blinks back tears.</p><p>“Appa!”</p><p>Sniffling, Doyoung glances down at Donghyuck as he runs toward them.</p><p>Donghyuck opens his mouth but hesitates, sudden worry turning his eyebrows down. “Are you okay?” His eyes shift over to Johnny. “What’s wrong with Papa?</p><p>Smile fond, Doyoung gives a slight shake of his head. “I’m okay, Hyuck. What is it?”</p><p>A bit of Donghyuck’s earlier enthusiasm returns, evident in the way he bounces on his toes. “Can we go sledding with Grandpa? He said he’ll take us to the hill!”</p><p>Humming, Doyoung nods.</p><p>“Is Yeri going?” Johnny asks.</p><p>Donghyuck shakes his head. “She said she doesn’t like sledding.”</p><p>“Alright. Don’t you and Jeno be too much trouble for your grandpa.”</p><p>“We won’t!” Donghyuck yells, running back into the living room. “They said ‘yes'!”</p><p>Doyoung chuckles.</p><p>“We are doing a good job, aren’t we?”</p><p>Johnny pats the back of his head. “We are,” he says. There’s a beat of silence and then: “You want another one?”</p><p>“Hell no.”</p><p>His quick response makes him both laugh. Exhaling, Doyoung looks up at Johnny. Over ten years together and he still wonders how he was able to win over such a great man.</p><p>He smiles.</p><p>“I love you.”</p><p>Johnny returns the smile, leaning in to kiss Doyoung again, a little harder than before.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Doyoung could probably recite a number of episodes of SpongeBob in full, a testament of how many times not only his kids, but his husband as well, have turned on the cartoon. He’d seen the show a few times when he was growing up in Korea, but it was never one of his favorites. Johnny acts like it’s a religious text and on any given day is likely to quote at least one of the lines. Get the kids involved and Doyoung may as well be living with the whole cast of the show.</p><p>He yawns as he steps over Johnny’s legs and unceremoniously plants himself in his husband’s lap, the rest of the couch taken up by Jeno and Yeri with Donghyuck playing on the Switch in the lounge chair. Johnny chokes as the air is shocked out of him, but he quickly recovers and wraps his arms around Doyoung’s waist, pulling him into his chest.</p><p>“Can’t we watch something more festive?” Doyoung complains, laying his head on Johnny’s shoulder. “Christmas is in five days.”</p><p>“Let us have this Doie.” Johnny chuckles. “Once Taeyong’s plane lands tomorrow you know he’s not going to let us watch anything but A Charlie Brown Christmas and all of those ugly Christmas claymations.”</p><p>“What’s wrong with A Charlie Brown Christmas?”</p><p>Johnny looks down at Doyoung with a raised eyebrow. “And what’s wrong with SpongeBob?”</p><p>Snorting, Doyoung squeezes a hand between them and pinches Johnny’s ear. “Don’t even act like they’re the same in this situation.”</p><p>“I’m not hearing an explanation, though,” Johnny retorts.</p><p>“Because you answered my question with another question so I’m not giving you one, smartass,” Doyoung whispers into his ear so the kids don’t hear his language.</p><p>He smiles when Johnny chuckles and follows the warm hand on his cheek when Johnny pulls him down for a quick peck on the lips.</p><p>“We’re not changing the channel,” Johnny says, kissing Doyoung a second time.</p><p>Sighing in defeat, Doyoung simply tucks his head into Johnny’s neck again and turns to look at the television.</p><p> </p><p>Doyoung had been exhausted, working through all of his schoolwork so he wouldn’t have anything to worry about over the short winter break, but Taeyong dragged him away from a good nap to Jaehyun’s apartment near Sinchon so they could make last-minute plans for Christmas.</p><p>He originally planned to go to his hometown as usual, but just the thought of being in the same place as his parents since he brought Johnny over has felt more and more stifling. Before he could ignore it a little better, the skepticism from his parents whenever he brushed them off about dating and the ‘jokes’ about him being gay, but that was because he never brought home a boy that he liked. He hated to know that his parents love Johnny but that it was only conditional based on the criteria that Doyoung didn’t love him too; he hated to know that he was only welcome for as long as he didn’t come out but Doyoung didn’t want to — couldn’t — live like that forever.</p><p>The decision to spend Christmas with his friends was an easy one. Taeyong’s relationship with his family was practically nonexistent for the same reasons Doyoung didn’t want to go home, Jungwoo had to work over the holiday and didn’t have time to go to his hometown, Johnny didn’t want to pay the cost for a round trip flight to Chicago, and Jaehyun was just along for the ride as the only one with his own place that wasn’t a dorm or share-house.</p><p>That was how Doyoung found himself feeling oddly cramped and yet simultaneously comforted as he slowly peeled his eyes open. There was a weight around his shoulders and a hand in his hair that stopped once he whined out a tiny groan as he awoke.</p><p>“Good morning.”</p><p>Johnny’s warm chuckle sent a pleasant tickle down Doyoung’s spine.</p><p>Blinking groggily, Doyoung stared forward as he came to. The television across from the tiny sofa was playing one of the Home Alones because Taeyong was weirdly obsessed with Christmas movies and always took charge of the television or Netflix account when he had the chance. He couldn’t hear Taeyong or Jaehyun, but before he could think of looking for them, Johnny was stroking his hair again and lulling him back to sleep.</p><p>“Hyung.” Inhaling deeply, Doyoung lifted his head off Johnny’s shoulder enough to find his eyes but their bodies remained pressed together on the cramped seating.</p><p>Johnny regarded him with gentle eyes, his eyebrows raised slightly with curiosity. “Hm?” He swept his fingers through Doyoung’s hair, the tips ever so lightly grazing the shell of his ear.</p><p>In this position, looking at him this closely, Doyoung felt himself blush. The butterflies he’d been trying to ignore were now whipping up a whirlwind with how frantically they were fluttering in his stomach.</p><p>“I...”</p><p>As Doyoung stared at Johnny, he couldn’t remember if he had something to say or what compelled him to call the other boy. Johnny’s soft gaze was too hypnotic, his hand in Doyoung’s hair too intimate. Doyoung wanted to look away but found that he couldn’t, his mind in a panic trying to calm the pounding of his heart and the steady rush of blood into his cheeks.</p><p>It was Johnny who broke eye contact, his attention sweeping over Doyoung’s face and Doyoung’s breath caught when those dark, roving eyes finally stopped on what he realized was his mouth.</p><p>“Johnny?”</p><p>“Hm?” Johnny hummed once more.</p><p>The hand in Doyoung’s hair stopped at the base of his neck and Doyoung couldn’t help but nervously bite his lip when he noticed Johnny swallow thickly.</p><p>Beeping broke them apart as the key code to the front door was entered, Johnny pulling his hand away and turning to face the television as he cleared his throat.</p><p>Doyoung looked toward the door to see Taeyong and Jaehyun entering.</p><p>“We’re back with chicken!” Taeyong said as soon as he locked eyes with Doyoung, lifting the plastic bag in his hand.</p><p>Doyoung must have fallen asleep before they decided on what to eat. “O-Oh, okay. Cool,” he replied.</p><p>Taeyong moved into the kitchen while Jaehyun excused himself to the bathroom. Beside him, Johnny suddenly stood up and Doyoung looked at him in surprise.</p><p>He watched Johnny follow Taeyong into the kitchen and once he was the only one in the tiny living room, he sighed.</p><p>If they didn’t come back, then...</p><p> </p><p>“...would that have been our first kiss?” Doyoung asks in a low whisper after he finishes relaying the memory, running a finger over a row of stitches of his husband’s knit sweater.</p><p>Johnny chuckles under his breath. “Yeah...it would have,” he murmurs, voice only for Doyoung.</p><p>In Johnny’s hold, one of his hands slid up the back of Doyoung’s hoodie and his underlying shirt to rest warmly on the dip of his waist, Doyoung thinks he could fall asleep like he did on Johnny’s shoulder that day all those years ago.</p><p>The kids aren’t paying them any attention, all of their focus on the TV or a game, and they probably won’t need either of them unless Yeri wants something from the kitchen. Doyoung watches them under his lowered lids, blinking lights on the Christmas tree in the corner casting pale glows of red, green, and gold on their skin, and is warmed by the feeling of being home.</p><p>He snuggles into Johnny’s collar and smiles lightly when he feels a soft kiss pressed to his forehead.</p><p>“I was so mad at them for the next two days,” Johnny says, now caught in his own memory. “I had finally worked up the nerve to make a move on you and I was smoochblocked by Kyochon.”</p><p>Doyoung’s snorts at his husband’s attempt to keep his language kid-friendly.</p><p>“After you and Taeyong left, I think I complained at Jaehyun about it for thirty minutes and then after I went back to my dorm, I called him and complained some more.”</p><p>“You<em> what</em>?” Doyoung erupts into giggles, covering his mouth to muffle the sound so he doesn’t disturb the kids too much. “You never told me that.”</p><p>Johnny playfully pinches Doyoung’s waist under his shirt. “Because I knew you’d laugh at me like you are now?”</p><p>“It’s cute.”</p><p>“Then stop laughing.”</p><p>Doyoung snorts again in the middle of his giggling. “I never said it wasn’t funny.”</p><p>“They’re being gross again,” Jeno says to Donghyuck with a sigh.</p><p>“Daddy and Appa aren’t gross!” Yeri defends them, turning to face her fathers with a cute, innocent frown. “Jeno said a mean thing.”</p><p>Doyoung tries to get his laughter under control. Johnny sticks his tongue out at Jeno and Doyoung lightly smacks him in the chest. “Stop.” He turns to Yeri. “When Jeno finds someone he likes, he’ll be just as gross.”</p><p>Jeno grimaces. “Ew?”</p><p>And Donghyuck, never one to miss a chance to tease his brother, pops his head up from his game. “Didn’t you say that other Korean kid, Mark, is kind of cute?”</p><p>“<em>No</em>,” Jeno all but yells, his face quickly turning a bright shade of pink.</p><p>Doyoung raises his eyebrows. “Oh? Who is Mark?”</p><p>“He’s— “</p><p>“No one!” Jeno cuts Donghyuck off. He jumps up from the couch. “I’m going to do my homework,” he says as he walks past them all to get to the stairs.</p><p>Doyoung and Johnny share a laugh. They both know Jeno has already finished the work assigned for the winter vacation.</p><p>“I’ll go check on him in a minute,” Johnny says, patting Doyoung’s hip.</p><p>Sliding off his husband’s lap, Doyoung stands and adjusts his hoodie. “Hey, Rockstar, how about we get started on our Christmas cookies early?”</p><p>With an adorable gasp, Yeri climbs off the couch. “Okay!”</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>'All I Want for Christmas is You' fades from the ending notes back into the starting jingles as it replays for the sixth time in a row and Doyoung stops short in the kitchen to close his eyes and take a deep, relaxing breath so he doesn’t march into the living room and change the song. It’s a good song, but he’s never been the type to listen to the same song over and over again. Mariah’s vocals, while amazing, will not convince him otherwise.</p><p>He can hear Taeyong, who has been staying with them for the last few days since arriving from Korea, singing with Yeri so he lets them enjoy themselves even if he knows he’s going to go to bed tonight hearing jingle bells and Mariah Carey's adlibs in his head.</p><p>“Jaehyun said he’s turning off the exit into town now,” Johnny says as he walks into the kitchen, pocketing his phone.</p><p>“Oh, he’s earlier than I thought he’d be.” Doyoung leans against the island across from the stove. There’s a plate of assorted cookies left over from his and Yeri’s baking — and secretly mixed in with a few of the ones for Santa that he and Johnny didn’t have the room to eat last night after Yeri <em>insisted</em> on leaving out twenty cookies for Santa despite how Doyoung tried to tell her that Santa wouldn't want that many.</p><p>From the pile, he takes a star-shaped sugar cookie and bites into one of the points. “You also have good timing. I was about to find you to tell you the ham is done warming.”</p><p>It’s the last thing to finish preparing before they can eat dinner and Doyoung, who has been fluttering in and out of the kitchen all morning, is more than ready to eat after being immersed in the mixed scents of each dish.</p><p>Johnny, as always, is on meat duty and Doyoung sticks around for a little while to watch him take the ham out of the slow cooker and mix the ingredients for the dry glaze.</p><p>Checking the time on his phone, Doyoung walks over to his husband with the rest of his cookie in hand. “Ahh.”</p><p>Glancing at him out of the corner of his eye, Johnny obediently opens his mouth and lets Doyoung feed him the rest of the sweet.</p><p>“What did you even pick it up for?” Johnny asks with his mouth full.</p><p>“Thought I wanted it,” Doyoung replies, leaning over Johnny’s arms that are stretched out toward the ham to kiss the corner of his mouth. “I’m gonna call your parents so the kids can wish them a Merry Christmas and then we can open the rest of the gifts when Jae gets here.”</p><p> </p><p>“Uncle Jaehyun!” Donghyuck yells when Jaehyun walks in thirty minutes later balancing presents in his hands.</p><p>Doyoung swipes the gifts out of his arms and Jaehyun quickly tosses an arm around Donghyuck, putting him in a loose headlock and ruffling his hair.</p><p>“What’s up, loser?” Jaehyun chuckles as Donghyuck squirms in his hold. He looks up when he hears Jeno laughing and releases Donghyuck with a smirk. “What are you laughing at?” He teases, catching a fleeing Jeno in short strides and putting him in a light hold all the same. “Don’t think I won’t treat you the same.”</p><p>Jeno complains about his hair and laughs at the same time and Doyoung can only smile fondly as he goes to put Jaehyun’s gifts under the tree with the rest. It’s a useless action considering they’ll be opened with the rest in a moment, but it’s the thought that counts.</p><p>“Hi, Uncle Jaehyun!” Yeri sings, looking up from one of the block puzzles she got from her grandparents this year — Doyoung let all of them open one gift as soon as they woke up — to wave. “Look it’s a train!” She holds up the puzzle and gasps when all of the pieces fall to the floor.</p><p>The adults all smile at her as she pouts and puts the frame of the puzzle down on the floor again.</p><p>“Uh-oh~” Donghyuck laughs as he walks over and sits down beside her to help her put the puzzle together again.</p><p>Doyoung walks over to Jaehyun and pulls him into a hug. “I’m glad you made it safe. How was the trip?”</p><p>“Could have been better, could have been worse,” Jaehyun says, patting Doyoung’s back before letting him go. “The drive from Detroit is definitely better than a flight from New Haven, though.”</p><p>An arm slips around Doyoung’s waist briefly as Johnny walks past him to clasp hands with Jaehyun and pull him into a stereotypical bro hug. “Hey, man.”</p><p>“Hey, Jae,” Taeyong says as he passes by them, chocolate chip cookie in hand.</p><p>Jaehyun’s brows furrow and he frowns as he looks at Taeyong’s back. “‘<em>Hey, Jae</em>?’” he repeats. “I don’t see you for a whole year and all I get is ‘<em>hey, Jae</em>?’”</p><p>Taeyong turns over his shoulder and sticks his tongue out.</p><p>“So, are we in our thirties or...?” Doyoung quirks an eyebrow.</p><p>Johnny laughs as he grabs Doyoung’s hand and tugs him along toward the tree. “Leave them alone. You know how they are.”</p><p>Doyoung snorts. “Like I said, are we in our thirties or not?”</p><p> </p><p>Donghyuck and Jeno stare at Doyoung and Johnny with wide eyes after they finally rip open their last present. They were annoyed when Johnny said it was something they needed to share, but once they got the wrapping paper off and saw the PlayStation 5 box underneath, there was nothing but complete shock on their fraternal faces.</p><p>“No way,” Jeno exhales breathlessly, gaze flickering between his parents and the game console.</p><p>“You said you weren’t going to try getting it,” Donghyuck says.</p><p>“<em>How</em> did you get it?” Jeno asks, looking over the box like it’ll give him the answer.</p><p>“Who are you? The police?” Doyoung laughs. “What’s with the interrogation?”</p><p>The twins look at each other and then simultaneously scramble off the floor to hug their fathers, Jeno running to Doyoung and Donghyuck running to Johnny.</p><p>“It stays in the living room, okay?” Johnny says after the boys say their thanks.</p><p>“Can we play today?” Donghyuck asks, already trying to squeeze his fingers under the tape holding the box closed.</p><p>Doyoung hardly gets out ‘after dinner,’ before both boys speedily ask:</p><p>“When can we eat?”</p><p>Shaking his head with a fond sigh, Doyoung gets up. “If you come help set the table, we can eat faster.”</p><p>The twins pop up again, excited grins on their faces.</p><p>“Okay, then let’s go!” Donghyuck says, bending down to pick up their tattered wrapping paper.</p><p>Doyoung sends Johnny a glance as he follows his boys to the kitchen. “These are <em>your</em> kids.”</p><p>Smiling affectionately, Johnny winks.</p><p>In the kitchen, Doyoung pulls out plates and silverware for the boys to take to the circular dinner table out in their small dining space next to the kitchen. As they do so, he pulls out the food he left sitting warm in the oven or on the stove.</p><p>He’s just finished putting the ham in the center of the table and is turning into the kitchen again when Taeyong suddenly comes out carrying a pot in his hands. Doyoung is quick to step back out of his way and flinches when he bumps into someone behind him.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry,” Johnny apologized, settling a hand on Doyoung’s waist to keep him steady. Doyoung glanced up at him, and then over at Taeyong who had just passed them balancing the strawberry shortcake and the red velvet cakes they got from A Twosome Place in both hands.</p><p>“I-It’s okay,” Doyoung mumbled. He didn’t know Johnny was that close behind him, but it wasn’t as though Jaehyun’s apartment was that big anyway.</p><p>“Hyung, why didn’t you ask for help?” Jungwoo laughed as he took the red velvet cake off Taeyong’s hands. “If you knocked into Doyoung, both cakes would have been over.”</p><p>“I had it,” claimed Taeyong. He looked over at Doyoung and opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a simple, oddly happy, “Oh?”</p><p>Doyoung frowned at his best friend. “What?”</p><p>“...Oh,” Johnny also mumbled.</p><p>Doyoung looked at him. “<em>What</em>?“ He followed both of their gazes up and understood when his heart stopped at the sight of plastic mistletoe taped to the ceiling. “O-Oh.”</p><p>“What a coincidence that’s it’s you two of all people under the mistletoe,” Jungwoo said, something sly in his voice.</p><p>Johnny narrowed his eyes at Jungwoo and then they turned soft when he looked at Doyoung. “I did <em>not</em> know that was up there.”</p><p>Doyoung believed him. Johnny wouldn’t look so taken aback, his cheeks delicately flushed, if he were lying. He wouldn’t be surprised if it were any of the other three, or if it was an idea they all shared together. Doyoung had mentioned how much he liked Johnny to Taeyong plenty of times, Jungwoo liked anything that might embarrass his friends, and Jaehyun—</p><p>“Hurry up and make out!” Jaehyun called from where he was hanging over the back of the sofa.</p><p>—Jaehyun was way too excited about the mistletoe to not have known it was there.</p><p>Johnny cleared his throat and, when Doyoung glanced at him again, he swallowed noticeably and wiped his hands on the front of his jeans. “We don’t have to do it. It’s stupid.”</p><p>Out of the corner of his eye, Doyoung saw Taeyong elbow Jungwoo and nod toward the foldable table that was open and sat in front of the couch. Heart pounding in his ears, Doyoung lowered his eyes and looked up at Johnny under his lashes. “It is,” he murmured, “but what...what if I want to?”</p><p>“You do?”</p><p>“Johnny,” Doyoung stepped closer to the other boy and reached out a hand to lightly grip the soft fabric of his hoodie. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the second time we met.”</p><p>Johnny chuckled airily and something about it sounded relieved. “Oh, I win. I wanted to kiss you as soon as you told me your name in that Internet cafe.”</p><p>It was so ridiculous to Doyoung’s ears that he couldn’t help but choke on a laugh. “I wasn’t aware it was a competition?”</p><p>“It wasn’t but I just want you to know that you lost twice that day anyway.” Johnny grinned, shuffling closer still.</p><p>Doyoung rolled his eyes, cheeks bright red. “You’re so stupid,” he said, adoration softening the insult.</p><p>Johnny swept his tongue over his lips and Doyoung followed the movement with his eyes, lifting on his toes a little in anticipation and Johnny leaned in.</p><p>“But you still like me?” Johnny asked.</p><p>“Yeah...,” Doyoung whispered, “I really like you.”</p><p>“Can I kiss you?” Johnny asked, so close his lips ghosted over Doyoung’s ever so lightly as he spoke.</p><p>Doyoung exhaled a soft ‘yes’ and finished the job, fitting his mouth with Johnny’s.</p><p>Their friends were speaking but Doyoung couldn’t hear anything over his heart. He pulled back to search Johnny’s eyes to gauge his reaction, but Johnny’s attention was still on his mouth. He didn’t say anything when Johnny cupped his jaw, just let himself be pulled into another kiss that sent the butterflies in his stomach into a frenzy.</p><p>Doyoung had crushes before, had dated here and there, and no boy had ever felt like summer with how warm — how bright and full of life — he was. But when Doyoung was with Johnny, he felt as though he’d never be cold again, wouldn’t even feel the slightest chill.</p><p>Jaehyun’s congratulations were the first words to make it through the rush of elation Doyoung was feeling when he and Johnny finally separated.</p><p> </p><p>“Now, that I’m thinking about it,” Doyoung says, breaking away from his husband before Johnny could kiss him. He turns around, searching for Jaehyun and ignoring Johnny’s whines for attention. “It was <em>you</em>, wasn’t it,” he accuses out when his eyes land on Jaehyun who is currently holding Yeri.</p><p>Eyes wide, Jaehyun looks around before fixing Doyoung with a confused look. “What was me?”</p><p>“The mistletoe the day Johnny and I started dating.”</p><p>Jaehyun blinks slowly before he tosses his head back in a bark of a laugh, shocking Yeri. “Sorry, cutie.” He reigned himself in and pressed a kiss to her hair before looking at Doyoung again. “Yeah,” he admits. “I thought you knew. After Johnny yelled at me for an hour for fuc— <em>messing up</em> his chance, I thought I’d help out. It worked out better because you both ended up under it without me having to trick either of you.”</p><p>Doyoung is happy to finally have that question solved after over ten years but he latches onto something else. “An <em>hour</em>?” A giggle bubbling up in his chest, he looks at Johnny who glares at Jaehyun.</p><p>“Anyway, we should finish getting ready to eat.” Johnny squeezes around his husband to enter the kitchen, trying to avoid the topic.</p><p>Doyoung doesn’t let him, latching onto the back of his sweater. “You were that determined to kiss me?” He teases, biting back a laugh but unable to do anything about his wide smile.</p><p>“<em>Yes</em>. Are you going to keep bringing it up?”</p><p>Letting out the giggle he was holding back, Doyoung glances over his shoulder to make sure none of their kids are in the room. “Think of it as foreplay.”</p><p>Johnny laughs too. “It’s been so long since we’ve last had alone time, I think you’ve forgotten what constitutes as sexy, baby.”</p><p>Doyoung releases Johnny’s sweater and pinches his ass. “And that’s why I think we should leave the kids with your parents for New Year’s.”</p><p>Pausing, Johnny slowly turns to look at Doyoung. “Excuse me?”</p><p>Doyoung raises an eyebrow, a sly smirk on his face. “Excuse <em>me</em>,” he says, pushing Johnny out of the way and walking ahead of him to the stove where there’s another pot holding mashed potatoes waiting. “I have a family to feed and you’re in the way.”</p><p>Johnny blinks, absentmindedly checking there isn’t anything else left to bring besides the cake, which is for later, before trailing after his husband. “Wait...Doie— “</p><p>“I already asked your parents when we visited last week.” Doyoung slows down so Johnny can catch up and then quickly kisses his cheek. “Merry Christmas.”</p><p>Johnny reminds himself of how many days are left until the last day of the month. “And a very happy new year.”</p>
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